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EU turn if you want to

In an astonishing display of mendacity, David Cameron has finally called for a halt to EU power grabs by promising a referendum on all future EU treaties apart from treaties on enlargement of the EU.

Since the Treaty of Lisbon, bravely signed by Gordon Brown in a quiet office without pomp and ceremony, is self-ratifying, meaning that by signing it, any future treaties are unnecessary — with one small exception: any attempts to enlarge the EU will require further treaties. This is the only thing which will not be subject to one of canny Cameron’s referenda will be the only referenda that the EU will hold. The usually sensible Spectator blog describes this mendacity as “finessing” the situation.

It’s interesting that Liberal Democrat Europhiles are not up in arms about this. You would have thought that any attempt by “the Eurosceptic Tories” to slow down European integration would be subject to a massive protest by the coalition. And yet the only protest against this referendum promise is coming from genuinely Eurosceptic Tories.

Our parliament is increasingly becoming a pointless sham. I cannot understand why politicians continue to run like headless chickens down a path that leaves them increasingly powerless, mere figureheads in a game that is actually being played many hundreds of miles away on the continent.

“I cannot understand why politicians continue to run like headless chickens down a path that leaves them increasingly powerless, mere figureheads in a game that is actually being played many hundreds of miles away on the continent.”

Because they still get paid regardless, and now have the advantage of being able to offload complaints with a shrug and a ‘Not our fault, EU rules, see’…

It’ll be interesting watching the Sarkozy v Roma thingy. I loved Sarkozy’s response of ‘well you have the Pikeys living in your country then’. Good lad.

Hopefully, now there’s a nice bit of domestic povertyall over Europe then in this round of budget negotions the rebate will be untouched and a good audit of EU offices undertaken. Neil Kinnock really has a lot to answer for.

“I cannot understand why politicians continue to run like headless chickens down a path that leaves them increasingly powerless, mere figureheads in a game that is actually being played many hundreds of miles away on the continent.”

It IS a pointless sham – and has been so pretty well all along. The purpose of Parliament is and always has been to promote the interests of Big Bees Knees – historically through naval and military dominance – and latterly to rubberstamp the nasty diktats of the European state. Any engagement with the public on the part of politicians and parties is solely for PR reasons – or entertainment. I simply don’t buy into any notion of parliamentary democracy for the simple reason that it never existed. It was ever a popular fantasy promoted by Those Who Know Better.

The majority of MPs don’t have a clue what’s going on about anything. I’ve decided to stalk my MP by email, have found it highly amusing to date and would recommend it to anybody who wants to find out what their parliamentary representitive actually knows. In my case my MP is clueless, and so are her helpers who appear only capable of cut&pasting banal rhetoric as replies to some challenging questions. Ultimately my goal is to try and make her think in a bit more depth about what’s going on in the world. It won’t change the world but if enough people can make their MPs think through what they are doing, we might just get somewhere.

If I had the time, I’d set up a blog called something like “Let’s make the Bastards Work”, where the good people of the blogosphere could exchange ideas on how to mentally challenge their own MPs. Let’s face it, as individuals we don’t have a great deal of clout with MPs, but a coordinated campaign aimed at educating MPs about important matters such as those detailed above could be useful for those prepared to listen. Pressure groups, Unions and lobbyists all have financial backing to get their point across while a non-political, large scale movement centred around a blog might just carry some weight. It’s called democracy but I’m being naive again. Nice idea though.

Mr Blunkett said: “I was right, as Home Secretary in the post-9/11 era, to agree to the European Arrest Warrant, but I was insufficiently sensitive to how it might be used.”

That sums up David Blunkett’s ministerial career – he ignored or discounted any criticism of his astonishingly illiberal policies.

I’m sorry for anyone detained here or abroad on the basis of an European arrest warrant – but the fact that the warrants exist and that they are still being accepted by the UK can only publicise how our national sovereignty has been surrendered to the EU and other multinational organisations.